Boost for UK households as £500 million energy bill debt to be written off

So we shouldnt have bothered paying, this is wholly unfair

Is there any other industry where paying customers directly subsidise those that don’t?
I know supermarkets put prices up to claw back shoplifting but they at least don’t apply an overt ‘shoplifting levy’ to my weekly shop.

Everyone (households) who pays for their electricity has £52 added to their bill every year.

That money is used to compensate the electricity companies for losses they’ve made from people being unable to pay their bills because of the high cost of energy.

It’s a dishonest way of keeping the deficit off the social security and benefits budgets which is where it should really be dealt with and effectively another tax on households.

Seems like capitalism constantly need socialist bailouts to keep basic necessities functional….

Maybe instead of bailing out stockholders, we nationalise electricity and bailout ourselves.

> Under the existing price cap, an annual charge of £52 is levied on household energy bills as a debt allowance, designed to cover unpaid energy debts that are ultimately written off.

Eh, we’re already paying it as *bill payers*, not tax payers so bills have already gone up because of this scheme.

Now this part is interesting:

>Ofgem said it is pushing forward with proposals to bring the debt down and reform how these debts are managed in order to prevent it growing as high in future and therefore reducing the cost to all households.
> Other proposals by Ofgem include plans to trial changes to the process households must follow when they move into a new property.

Currently, new occupants are expected to contact the existing supplier to set up an account. This sounds like the energy companies are going to try and get ahead of the game. I wonder what they’ll come up with?

The stupid tax trap, triple lock, winter fuel allowance, now this.

This is the furthest from fair for working families.

No wonder populism is on the rise.

As per usual in this country, working hard, paying bills and doing everything “right” gets you absolutely nothing other than being continually milked by government for those who don’t work and don’t live within their means. Thanks again Labour.

When they say “you’ll become more right wing as you get older” this is the sort of thing that causes it.

Why did I let my house go cold last year? Utterly disgraceful that once again people who do the right thing are the ones who are punished.

So people who do the right thing pay £52 a year to cover the scroungers who default.

Honestly I don’t know why I open Reddit BEFORE I GO TO WORK

I’d love it if a bit more effort was put into encouraging people not to waste so much energy inflating their bills. When I sit down with mates and we compare bills the differences can be quite shocking (from £90pcm to £600pcm for gas/electric).

This is a group of people all living in comparable properties other than one in a 1 bed flat who pays more than half of us. I can count many stories of people telling me about their other half having the heat pumping out but also having their windows open ‘because it is too hot inside’. We all know people who have on every light in their house.

I’m not claiming this will solve the problem at all but for many they do not think and just use. I honestly believe a lot of people could reduce their bills with a bit of effort. I’ve had this convo with my mate who spends £600 a month but he claims he can’t reduce it.

Yet ***another*** increase, and I bet those who ***cannot be bothered*** (to work/pay their bills/etc) are laughing all the way to the bank.

Because that’s going to encourage benefits to pay their bills.

This country makes me want to tear my hair out

And I thought this was great (as a tax paying middle class person in a high cost of living area) as obviously it would be for those who struggle the most and isn’t a case of “I’ll just stop paying”. People are MAD at this? Damn.

The article actually says the first part is for those in means tested benefits and others will be expected to work with debt charities etc.

It’s so clearly not a case of “fuck you”. People just LOVE to hate this government.

People who paid their bills are now subsidising those who didn’t? The UK is now beyond parody.

PAYE class has no representation at all in parliament.

~~Boost for UK households as £500 million energy bill debt to be written off~~

Penalty for UK households as £500 million energy debt to be fostered onto paying customers

Labour were always going to be given a very short leash to try and solve some issues embedded by 40 years of neo-liberalism, many of which have significantly worsened in the face of 14 years of Tory failure and accelerated by the trinity of recent major events (Brexit, Covid, the end of ‘cheap’ Russian gas). I have much sympathy for the Government trying to thread the trickiest needle in politics since Churchill had to rally the country/empire to stand up to Nazi Germany.

However. *takes a long sigh*. Letting Ofgem force this onto consumers rather than out of the excessive profits of the energy generators is further evidence that the Labour leadership have lost the plot. They cannot see how both Reform and the Greens will gain from wielding this against them.

[Energy network companies pocket £4 billion in excess profits from cost-of-living crisis, says Citizens Advice](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/energy-network-companies-pocket-gbp4-billion-in-excess-profits-from-cost-of/)
Just this year Ofgem found 8 times this debt had slipped into energy profits! Why aren’t these funds being targeted to clear the debt first?

Put these thieving households on prepayment meters. Why am I paying for criminals to get away with this? I was threatened with a prepayment meter when I moved in to my flat as the electric company hadn’t gotten their payments.

Exceptions can be made, but this is adding to the list of unfair BS being levied on the honest.

Im paying £200 a month to keep the house warm year round. I overpay in the 2 summer months to ensure the winter months dont put be into mega debt.

Im also glad nobody else is having to suffer just because they cant afford to do this.

Yes its a small kick in the teeth for me having to pay so much, but I’m glad others arent being punished for wanting to be warm.

There can be nuance.

How’s that a boost for the honest hard working people that have actually paid? We’ll be the ones paying off everyone else’s bill via tax as usual

“The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.”

Better get your axes sharpened, if this thread is anything to go by.

You can really tell who doesn’t pay bills and are just pushing a talking point here. Even if people cut their electricity usage to zero, they still get debt because of the standing charge. No matter what, that keeps getting added.

>However, the cost of unpaid debts will continue to be covered by being reclaimed across all households’ bills.

So, not so much ‘written off’, as ‘given to the rest of us to pay’.